Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Side by side ATV's ...... I don't understand the utility or draw of them

That photo ROCKS. Wish I could do some stuff like that. Way cool.

Have to agree....very cool pic....the moose antlers really fill the back of the Rhino......

That pic could have been taken in any number of places I've hunted in Scotland; except for the moose antlers of course!

On one lease we were on, the forestry roads had deep "runs" washed into them by the rain...

By "deep", I'm taking 3 or 4 feet wide and anything from a couple feet wide to nearly 6 foot across. Having said that, we managed to take stock 4x4's long/across them. I did it numerous times with my Trooper, as did others on the lease using Jeep Cherokees, Discovery's, Toyota Hilux pick-ups ect.. The only time we refrained from trying was in deep snow simply because you could see what was underneath...

Away from the forestry roads, when they were available, we tended to use either a quad or a 6x6 Argo as in a lot of places the ground was too soft to take the weight of a full sized 4x4.

The one thing I don't like about bikes for hunting is having to drag the game out instead of carrying it...Sometimes its a necessary evil, but I feel dragging a gutted carcass through muddy bogs, dirt, and vegitation is best avoided if possible.

A good drag bag, or using a "sled" helps to keep things clean of course...

The pictures below were from a stalking trip to the Isle of Arran off the coast of Scotland...The terrain is actually a lot rougher than it appears as the heather hides a lot of the worst stuff...

The way things worked is when you shot a beast,you'd radio for help and the two guys running the place would come out with quads or an Argo to recover the carcass.





In some instances, if the carcass was with in a few hundred yards of a logging road, ropes and stropes were used to pull it out whole and the beast was the gralloched in the relatively clean conditions ofthe road..The large areas of clear-fell were undoubtedly the worst places to get a beast out from.







[img]http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l237/PeteUK24/carcassextraction4forweb.jpg[/img]

I'm sad to say, but the stag in the pic below is not mine, but it was taken by somebody else in our group..I post it because it shows the utility of a well kitted out argo.

[img]http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/508/16845grifweb6.jpg[/img]

Argo's of course can also be fitted with tracks so they work equally well in winter and of course they are amphibious to a degree..

I guess really its about picking the right vehicle for the right circumstances...Quads/ATV's are hard to beat as qood all-rounders but once the terrain gets really tricky, a more specialist vehicle like the Rokon or the Argo shines..

WOW! My vote for one of the coolest posts of the year. Thanks a ton for taking the time to put this up. I have been intrigued by the ARGO as well and have been wanting to get one of THOSE as well....

I'm picking up a Big Red next Saturday. I'm entering "old-farthood" and getting tired of being rained on & freezing my nads off on my Foreman. Our club lease has pretty good trails for the most part, and with 2000 acres to cover, the weather protection will be a good thing......

Pard had a bachelor party. Group of us got together with a mixed bag of 4x4, sport and sxs type of vehicles. The sxs went everywhere else the others went and at speed. Nicest thing was the coolers full of hooch that those of us riding the sxs could access and drink on the fly - not so much for the quad guys....

81 cans of beer and bout 22 miles..... good mileage.

Sounds like quite the party! Can a guy get written for DUI whilst on an ATV????

Way to kick some butt.

Probably but we were on private land for the beginning and only on regular trails for a very short time. Side of the road too but that was before the coolers were opened.

The SxS went EVERYWHERE the quads did, just with 2 people on them. You just have to be willing to pin it and go.

We had a blast and was much better than the usual tittybar run.

Yept...DUI or open containers....same ticket...different vehicle...

Yes...the SXS UTV can haul lots of gear to the back country...including a full

size cooler full of beer.....BUT......I always have a designated driver....

And bring home the empties.......

Drinking and driving is not exactly something I'd be bragging about.

Then again - drinking and arsing about on private property is the same as mowing your lawn with a brew or shoveling the driveway with a brew or any number of things done with alcohol.

No injuries other than to ego (seems some people go their Polaris stuck and had to get pulled out with a Yamaha).

That's the beauty of private land - do what the hell you want.

IMO, ridiculously stupid no matter the local.

Fine - you are entitled to it.

only in WI.

or MN, or MI, or....

Well, that is going to be a given when you mix Polaris and Yamaha's.

Yeah - he was having ignition issues too. I wasn't complainin - I was riding shotgun and bartendin. Mostly to me

We have a Polaris Ranger and we don't use it specifically for hunting. Mostly as a ranch vehicle to fix fence, haul stuff like chainsaws etc, manage trails etc. All kinds of running around. More economical than a pickup and all that running around in all kinds of terrain can be quite hard on a truck. We do use it to get to hunting spots or haul a deer out. Nice that it can take 3 guys, all their gear and a deer at the same time.

Well, the Big Red is, um, BIG. A fair bit wider than the Rhino, the bed is large enough to hold a pallet. Ride quality is good, feels similar to the Ranger. Lots of torque from the single cyl 670cc engine and I do like the 3 spd auto transmission. No belt to worry about. The first thing I did was remove those stupid doors, add some auxiliary lights and a 3000lb Superwinch. This baby is going to need one if I stick it, unlike my old Foreman that I could pick up front or back & move it around. For my needs, it works well, has a 1200lb tow rating which means it will probably haul twice that without complaint, and has lots of room to haul gear, feed, etc.

OK..lets see some pics of the big beast......